A delegation made up of members of the Legislative Assembly (ALRN) and Public Ministry (MPRN) visited the Central Unit of Therapeutic Agents (Unicat) to check the situation at the center, which frequently faces a lack of medicines to distribute to the population. A survey by the unit itself shows that of the 211 medicines offered, 83 are unavailable, which represents a shortage of 39.3%. It was agreed between the members of the delegation and representatives of the State Secretariat for Public Health (Sesap), that the problem should be resolved within 60 days.
According to the deputies, who make up the Health Commission, who visited Unicat, the objective was to diagnose the problem and demand solutions from the Executive, argues parliamentarian Cristiane Dantas (SDD). “We came to monitor the issue of the lack of medicines for so long. We found that it is also a problem that comes from Sesap’s budget. There are medicines that have been missing repeatedly since October”, said Dantas, who was accompanied by deputies Galeno Torquato (PSDB) and Terezinha Maia (PL), who are also members of the Commission.
Torquato highlighted that the unit faces financial and structural problems. “There is a lack of financial structure and a lack of administrative structure because this lack of medicines is due to supplier delays, lack of personnel to speed up bidding. We made this diagnosis and today we have a shortage of almost 40% of medicines”, he points out.
In total, around 70 thousand people from Rio Grande do Norte have an active registration with Unicat to receive medicines. According to Unicat’s list, of the 83 missing medicines, 67 are awaiting the bidding process, while another 16 are awaiting approval from the Ministry of Health. Furthermore, there are still 12 medicines that are listed as “unavailable” in the system, but no patient is registered for remove them. While the situation is not resolved, the population has been suffering from shortages.
Retired Edineide do Nascimento, 57 years old, lives in Parnamirim, and has been waiting for medication for anemia for at least four months. “I have even received other medications, but the one I need most is Noripurum, which is to control anemia. During this period I haven’t been taking it, so it has interfered with my treatment,” she says.
The critical situation has been worrying the Public Ministry of RN, says prosecutor Rosane Moreno, who is coordinator of the Support Center for Health Defense Prosecutors. “It’s not new that we’ve been following this problem, last year, the We managed to achieve some legal blocks and then an agreement with Sesap to improve both logistics and financial issues, to obtain resources to purchase these medicines. Now we have this deadline pending for Sesap to respond to us”, she says.
The prosecutor also adds that if the situation is not resolved within 60 days, the State may suffer new judicial blocks or be forced to pay fines. “There is an open action with the agreement that was signed last year. We informed the judge that these deadlines had been missed, the judge opened a deadline on this and some things can be done in case of new non-compliances”, she explains.
RN’s Deputy Secretary of Health, Leidiane Queiroz, says that the visit was timely so that the bodies could understand the center’s difficulties. “The State has adopted direct purchasing, which is the fastest way for us to make purchases. We expect a regularity of 30 to 60 days for most of the inputs,” she says.
